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Dredd fan film ‘Judge Minty’ is now online

After a period of screenings at festivals and conventions, the Judge Dredd fan film Judge Minty has finally been released in full online. Packed with Easter eggs for long-term 2000AD fans, it proves that these days it would be entirely feasible to produce an authentic and faithful version of the futuristic lawman on a small-screen budget. As much as I enjoyed last year’s Dredd 3D, it’s hard not to watch this short and list the things that this production did better. For starters, this budget effort manages to properly get the Lawmaster bike, a street judge’s preferred form of transport, something the Stallone and Urban films got wrong in their different ways.

There’s some interesting stuff lurking in the comments section, too: In reply to the comment “please tell me that there will be more of these”, the producers state, “there are a few other people doing Dredd fan films, also an animated 5 minute short. We’ll be taking a break for a while — if we do something else it will likely be a lot shorter and quicker turnaround, and would likely be another 2000AD IP rather than Dredd.”

I was aware of at least two other fan films in various stages of production (“Sector 13” and “Cursed Edge”), though the animated short mentioned is news to me. The really juicy prospect here is the thought that Steven Sterlacchini and the rest of the Minty team are considering more films based on 2000AD characters. To me, the obvious choices would be either Strontium Dog or Rogue Trooper, two characters that regularly pop up in online lists of comic properties that mystifyingly haven’t been adapted into film. Hopefully there will be an announcement soon.